Billy Peltzer

Played by: Zach Galligan

The Hero of the films, a young cartoonist who works in Kingston Falls' bank. Receiving Gizmo as a pet from his dad, Billy quickly learns to appreciate the Schmuck Bait for caring for him. Things quickly go topsy turvy as the Gremlins rampage through the town with Billy being the only person dealing with the chaos. In the sequel, he works at Daniel Clamp's business tower in New York as a concept artist.

Genre Savvy: By the end of the first movie he's gotten the hang of how to deal with gremlins quite well. Too bad in both movies the folks in charge are utterly genre blind.

My Car Hates Me: His starter has a tendency to fail on him, and naturally it picks the worst possible time to do it when he arrives to rescue Kate.

Off with His Head!: Billy saves his mother from a Gremlin by lopping its head off with an ornamental sword.

Oh, Crap: When Stripe leaps into a swimming pool and the giant Gremlin army is created.

You Are Not Ready: Averted in Billy's case, as Mr. Wing proclaims Billy may one day be ready to handle a Mogwai.

Kate Beringer

Played by: Phoebe Cates

Billy's love interest. She works at the bank with Billy, but also part-time at a bar which is invaded by the Gremlins for a wild night out. In the sequel, she is living with Billy and works as a tour guide in Daniel Clamp's business tower.

Dark and Troubled Past: Hates Christmas, due to her father's death during an attempt to come down a chimney dressed as Santa. She also mentions an incident in the second film where she was flashed by a man resembling Abraham Lincoln.

Groin Kick: Attacks a flashing Gremlin in the second film, perhaps as a Take That to a similar incident in the first film, and to her dark past.

Randall "Rand" Peltzer

Played by: Hoyt Axton

Billy's father. An intelligent, yet Bungling Inventor. He makes good gadgets but they usually break down a week or two after he finishes them. He buys Gizmo as a pet for Billy.

Out of Focus: Introduced as a major character but then takes a backseat as he heads out of town to attend an inventor's fair, but returns at the end of the film to see Stripe's death.

Lynn Peltzer

Played by: Frances Lee McCain

Billy's mother and Randall's wife. While usually a kind housewife, Lynn goes badass when she realises the Gremlins are loose in house and manages to kill three of them when they invade her kitchen.

You No Take Candle: His English starts off bad but it becomes good by the end of the film.

Murray Futterman

Billy's neighbor, Murray Futterman often is seen Griping About Gremlins and is very proud of his snowplough. He and his wife are attacked by Gremlins when they steal his snowplough. they reappear in Gremlins 2 as New York tourists.

Took a Level in Badass: Was just another victim of the Gremlins' Comedic Sociopathy in the first film. In the second he is pivotal in stopping the invasion and even takes out a few of them single handedly.

Mrs. Ruby Deagle

Played by: Polly Holliday

Before the Gremlins rip apart Kingston Falls, Mrs. Deagle ruled the roost. A wicked old devil woman, Mrs. Deagle is a Rich Bitch willing to bring misery to everyone in town as long as she gets her money. She particularly has a grudge against the Peltzers.

Asshole Victim: To the point she even thought they were demons finally come to take her away.

Crazy Cat Lady: Mrs. Deagle's cats are named after different kinds of currency.

Kick the Dog: She loves tormenting the townsfolk. The first thing we see her doing in the movie is smugly denying an extension to a poor single mother, and the second thing is threatening to take Billy's dog and throw him into her clothes dryer for breaking her snowman decoration.

Deleted Scenes showed that she was planning to tear down people's home to put up a strip mall, and the novelization said that she was going to sell the town's land to a company called "HiTox", which implied she was gonna turn the whole place into a toxic waste dump.

Pet The Cat: Compared to her obsessive contempt for Barney, she dotes over her numerous cats and lets them run wild in her home.

Rich Bitch: One of the most wealthy and powerful civilians in Kingston Falls, to almost everyone's ire.

Super Window Jump: Mrs. Deagle meets her well-deserved end when a Gremlin breaks her stair lift, causing it to rocket up the stairs and send Mrs. Deagle flying out of a window to her death.

Villainous Breakdown: She loses it after the Gremlins attack her home, convinced the underworld has finally came for her.

Deagle: I'm not ready!!!

Kingston Falls Citizens

Cool Teacher: Mr. Hanson, Billy's science teacher who is given the Gremlin named Earl to study.

Daniel Clamp

An eccentric corporate manager who works in New York. He runs a completely automatically-powered skyscraper, hates black and white films, and wants to make the world a better place through good-intentioned projects.

Corrupt Corporate Executive: Subverted. Early on, Clamp is portrayed as being this from the views of other characters but when he shows up he turns out to be a nice, easygoing guy who is easily inspired and quickly befriends most of the people he meets.

Crazy-Prepared: Clamp has a video ready to play on his cable network in case the end of the world comes, inspired by a video Joe Dante found whilst visiting CNN.

Nice Guy: A rich nutcase, yes; but a rich nutcase who wants to make the world a kinder and gentler place.

Grandpa Fred

Mr. Katsuji

Dr. Cushing Catheter

All There in the Manual: His first name is given in the novelization by David Bischoff. That said, his name tag in the film reads "K. Catheter."

Shout-Out: His first name is definitely Bischoff's shout out to Christopher Lee's old acting buddy Peter Cushing.

Mogwai and Gremlins

Gizmo

Voiced by: Howie Mandel

A Ridiculously Cute Critter, Gizmo is a friendly Mogwai who Rand buys from Mr. Wing (or his nephew) to give to Billy as a pet. Completely good and friendly, Gizmo is accidentally made wet and spawns a batch of Gremlins leading to the chaos around Kingston Falls.

Stripe / Mohawk

Defacto leader of the Gremlins, Stripe is a sadistic, maniacal monster who enjoys carnage and torturing Gizmo. He is killed thanks to Gizmo, but comes Back from the Dead in Gremlins 2 as Mohawk, and downs a chemical that turns him into a half Gremlin, half spider monster, but is killed by Gizmo for the last time.

Big Bad: Stripe was this. Mohawk is more a lone wolf, though still the most sadistic and evil of the Gremlins and one of the most prominent and dangerous.

Determinator: Stripe is a resilient bastard in the first film, taking every measure to keep his species alive and rampant. This is diminished for Mohawk however, to the point he plays no part in their spawning whatsoever.

Knight of Cerebus: Comedic Sociopathy towards Gizmo aside, he is the most genuinely sinister and menacing of the Gremlin batch. While a demoted villain in the second film, he is still far more intimidating than the Laughably EvilBig Bad Brain (even his Mogwai form looks the part).

Non-Standard Character Design: His white tuft of hair in the first fim distinguishes him from the other gremlins. In the sequel, as a mogwai, he has his tuft of hair, black spots on his fur and sharp teeth. As a gremlin, he has a lionfish-like fin across his back, a wattle and his skin and overall appearance are much more scaly and reptilian.

Out of Focus: Becomes this in the second film, which shows brief intercuts of him torturing Gizmo and then randomly runs off to shoot at Billy.

One-Winged Angel: Twice: First, his transformation from Mogwai to Gremlin in both films and his mutant spider-hybrid form

Villain Decay: Stripe was truly evil and fiendish, and wanted to take over the whole town of Kingston Falls with his gremlin army. He was also much more intelligent. Mohawk, on the other hand, while much more fiendish and wicked when it comes to torture Gizmo, is not as intelligent as his original self and is more focused on creating chaos and havoc on his own, acting as a lone wolf and leaving his brethren to take over the spawning and invasion.

Brain Gremlin

Voiced by: Tony Randall

A brown Gremlin who was merely part of the horde,he drank a brain hormones serum which greatly increased his intelligence and made him able to talk,thus making him the new leader,and the new Big Bad and True Final Boss of the second movie.

Affably Evil: He's quite polite, charming and well-spoken — his goal is to make the Gremlins civilized. He's still a malicious creature who finds murder and street crime hilarious.

Big Bad: In the second movie he eventually leads the Gremlins to invade New York City after getting a Mook Promotion.

Blue and Orange Morality: Seriously believes the only difference between Broadway musicals and street crime is that the latter can be watched for free.

Even Evil Has Standards: He answers that civilization is the answer, explaining that the gremlins are vicious monsters that are primitive and violent because they're not civilized, and shows an example of a gremlin who is annoying and acts crazy next to him, which he promptly kills with a gun.

It Amused Me: Like most Gremlins who are not Stripe / Mohawk, he is more amoral and michevious than sadistic and while he thinks shooting another Gremlin is "darn good fun", he doesn't think there is anything wrong with it (other than it being "uncivilised").

Mook Promotion: Started off as a nameless Gremlin then got a chemical and replaced Mohawk as the Big Bad.

Smart People Wear Glasses: After he drinks the brain hormone and goes through his convulsions, a pair of glasses inexplicably appear on his face.

Wicked Cultured: He's an intellectual who appreciates the finer things of human culture... and he'll happily kill another of his kind for fun.

Daffy

A light green Gremlin that is extremely hyperactive in the manner of the older versions of Daffy Duck.

What Happened to the Mouse?: Apart from some Freeze-Frame Bonus scenes with him in the background with the other Gremlins in the latter part of the movie, it isn't shown if he died via electrocution along with the other Gremlins. A deleted scene however shows that he indeed died along with the rest.

George

A extremely grouchy-looking Gremlin that is often accompanied with his fellow Gremlin Lenny.

What Happened to the Mouse?: Apart from some Freeze-Frame Bonus scenes with him in the background with the other Gremlins in the latter part of the movie, it isn't shown if he died via electrocution along with the other Gremlins. A deleted scene however shows that he indeed died along with the rest.

Lenny

A buck-toothed Gremlin that is often accompanied with his fellow Gremlin George.

What Happened to the Mouse?: Apart from some Freeze-Frame Bonus scenes with him in the background with the other Gremlins in the latter part of the movie, it isn't shown if he died via electrocution along with the other Gremlins. A deleted scene however shows that he indeed died along with the rest.

Greta

A Gremlin who drank a serum that changed his gender and turned him female. She is the only surviving gremlin after all of them were killed in the climax.

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